Sunday, June 7, 2015

Heavy Metal Baseball

I don't necessarily think of heavy metal music when it comes to the sport of baseball (or baseball cards), although I do seem to remember Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres coming out of the bullpen to AC/DC's "Hell's Bells".

Well in 1996 Leaf decided to shake things up with a their Preferred set of cards. While the base cards weren't anything special, there was a 77 card set printed on metal...or steel if we're being accurate. It wouldn't be until 1998 that game used cards would be introduced to the world of card collecting, so metal baseball cards really stood out...or at least they did to me. Like many of Topps' Refractor cards that came with a special coating that you could peel off, these Steel insert cards featured the same thing. I opted to peel them as they look way better naked.

The 90's were my heyday of collecting and I had many of these 1996 Leaf Preferred Steel cards, however I was never able to amass very many. A few years ago I decided to stop set building and focus more on insert sets and things I liked. I've always liked cards that were made of something other than cardboard so I put this set on my collecting radar. After several years I finally found a rather decent size lot for a very generous asking price so I jumped. Now that I've finally had some time to get then scanned, it's time to share them off. I've also updated my respective Want List to reflect what is left of the 77 cards to finish off the set. I also ended up with several doubles from this lot so if these interest you make sure to check my Trade List!